An exploit was stolen from the National Security Agency (NSA) of the US two months ago, and soon after Microsoft patched all supported versions of Windows.

Train your employees on how to spot phishing emails. Estimates of the economic impact are still being tabulated, but they could easily run into the tens of billions of dollars.

On Friday, May 12, the world was hit with a massive cyber-attack with over 200,000 computers across 150 countries affected. When those users inadvertently click on the malicious file, illicit ransomware is quickly installed on the computer.

Researchers from a variety of security firms say they have so far failed to find a way to decrypt files locked up by WannaCry and say chances are low anyone will succeed. Security experts have disputed claims that the virus was spread through suspicious emails, speculating that computers were vulnerable to the bug regardless of how vigilant users were. Microsoft says customers should exercise caution when opening mails from unknown persons.

Reports indicate that months ago the National Security Administration first uncovered a vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system using a hacking tool that ironically was then released on the Internet by hackers.

"In our research, we found that a large percentage of attacks globally by WannaCry happened in India and the country was third on the total number of attacks", said Altaf Halde, Managing Director of Kaspersky Lab, South Asia. FedEx, one of the world's foremost worldwide shippers, was struck at the same time as telecommunications giants like Spain's Telefónica and Russia's MegaFon, and many more global behemoths will surely admit to ransomware infections in the days and weeks ahead.

How much money is the WannaCry cyberattack costing businesses? It is not uncommon for the data to remain encrypted even after the victim has paid up in full.

Summary: The Ransomware virus had stopped auto factories, hospitals, shops and schools in over 75 countries. "We expect this is a small operation that is undertaking this".

Europol said over the weekend that although ransomware is not new, the size of the current attack is "unprecedented". "Patch your systems now!"

Experts described it as the world's "greatest cyber-attack".

MOSCOW, RUSSIA | Following a massive cyber attack that has swept across dozens of countries around the world recently, the president of the U.S. technology giant Microsoft, Brad Smith, called on the governments, tech sector and customers to join forces in boosting global cyber security. This makes any organization (like schools, companies, hospitals, and businesses) using networked computers particularly vulnerable.

Global malware Wannacry has so far infected more than 40,000 computers in India.

The VNCERT said the ransomware is extremely risky as it is capable of stealing information and decrypting the entire system that has been infected. In what it said was a "highly unusual" step, Microsoft also agreed to provide the patch for older versions of Windows, including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Microsoft did not confirm to AFP when it made the patch free. "Many of these same folks are running systems with outdated operating system versions". Users are also advised to back up valuable data regularly, either to cloud services or to another disk drives, an not click on suspicious links or attached files.

CMIT Solutions delivers this kind of protection to many of our clients. Windows 10 was not affected by the WannaCry attacks.